In General XR News
December 6, 2023 – Copresence, a provider of digital avatar technology, has today announced a “significant breakthrough” in the balance of quality, efficiency, and cost in the avatar generation process. According to the company, its innovation sets a new industry standard, offering unparalleled value in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.
The digital avatar market has traditionally been dominated by either high-end, resource-intensive solutions from major tech giants, or simplistic cartoon-style avatars. Whilst these high-end avatars may look impressive, their creation involves highly expensive camera setups that are not accessible to the average consumer. Furthermore, subjects may need to sit for hours at a time in order to get fully scanned. On the other hand, the more simplistic avatars lack the level of realism required to create a truly believable likeness.
Copresence stated that its technology bridges this gap by delivering photorealistic avatars that rival the quality of top industry players at a fraction of the time and cost, offering those working in the gaming, XR/metaverse and video conferencing industries a straightforward solution for creating accurate 3D likenesses and facial digital twins.
“Our innovative technology marks a paradigm shift in digital avatar generation,” said Radek Mackowiak, CEO of Copresence. “While tech giants have demonstrated highly detailed avatars (such as Meta’s Codec avatars), these involve the use of complex and expensive capture setups that are simply inaccessible for your everyday user. With copresence, we are able to achieve photorealistic avatars in a matter of minutes, all with just a smartphone.”
As noted by Mackowiak, recent demonstrations of Meta’s Codec avatars show that the solution involves a lengthy scanning process and requires a range of expensive hardware that regular consumers and users simply don’t have access to. Zuckerberg himself stated in his interview (shown below) with Lex Fridman earlier this year: “Right now we have the ability to do the scans [of a user] if you have hours to sit for one… but the production of these scans in a very efficient way is one of the last pieces that we still need to really nail.”
Zuckerberg added in the September interview that the overall goal of Meta’s Codec avatars is to have the whole process take just two to three minutes and only require a cellphone to complete. Seemingly, copresence’s solution has already achieved what tech giant Meta has been aiming for with its avatar creation technology.
The key to copresence’s breakthrough lies in its advanced AI-driven platform, which allows for the rapid generation of high-quality digital avatars. As a result, the copresence platform is ideally suited to meet the needs of the gaming and virtual reality sectors, where the demand for realistic, yet affordable avatars is growing.
Mackowiak added, “We are committed to democratizing the digital avatar experience. Our solution empowers users and developers to create lifelike digital representations without the prohibitive costs or technical barriers traditionally associated with high-end avatar technology.”
Copresence announced in October more than USD $6 million in seed funding, which the company will use to fast-track its ambitious growth plans and further the development of its innovative technology. Earlier this year, copresence launched the open beta of its self-titled app, which is now available for download on the Apple App Store.
The company will be showcasing its groundbreaking avatar solution at CES in January 2024 from the Swisstech Pavillion located at Venetian Eureka Park, Booth #62833 (Level 1, Hall G). For more information about copresence and its 3D avatar creation technology, please visit the company’s website.
Image / video credit: copresence / YouTube
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.